Cheboygan man fines DNR for signs mistakenly put on his land

Tuesday

Jan 9, 2018 at 12:01 AM

CHEBOYGAN COUNTY- A Cheboygan man has sent a bill to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for signs mistakenly put on his property before last hunting season.

Bernie Boucher sent an invoice for $5,000 to the DNR for damage done to his property and has met with several people including State Representative Sue Allor and DNR regarding the matter. So far, the DNR has not paid the bill.

"I just got done with a meeting with Sue Allor," said Boucher. "I think that the DNR should pay the bill that I fined them for, the $5,000. I am required to pay a bill if I am doing something on state land, but they're not accountable on their end."

Boucher said the apology he was given by the DNR doesn't help and it's not a fix for the situation.

The DNR has a program where land owners are paid to open up their private property to hunters who don't have access to land to hunt called the Hunter Access Program. The DNR will then go out and mark that private property as part of the HAP program with the placards.

"They did this out on Long Lake Road, they marked 52-55 out of my 68 acres," said Boucher. "I didn't find the signage until the week of the 16th when I called Lansing. I found the placards on the 14th of October."

He wrote to Lansing to address the protocol of the program and met with Allor for more than an hour to try to get the matter addressed.

Boucher wants the DNR to be accountable for its actions and to pay for putting nails in his trees and putting the signs up, because if he were to do the same thing on state land, or if he didn't have his name on his hunting blind, he would be fined.

"I'm sorry doesn't work," he said.

Patrick Lederle, who oversees the HAP program, said the DNR partners with local conservation districts and there are hundreds of these properties around the state, on more than 25,000 acres. It is a very popular program.

The program has been around for years, offering land for hunters to use. However, it is fairly new to the Northern Michigan area and one of the adjoining property owners to Boucher's land was participating.

The signs are put up around the perimeter of the property being opened to the public, so the hunters know not to go on the adjoining property. However, in this case, there were signs mistakenly put on Boucher's property due to the adjacent property owner's confusion of where the property lines were.

Lederle said the signs were put up inadvertently on the edge of Boucher's land. As soon as the DNR heard about it, they took action.

"As soon as we heard about it, we in the DNR heard about, it's our program so we accepted full responsibility for that," said Lederle.

Boucher had contacted the DNR on a Monday and the person who runs the program said she could be up to take care of the matter that Wednesday. However, this was not a good day for Boucher, so it was arranged to take care of it that Friday.

"On Friday, we came out there and we removed all of the signs and the nails that had been used to put the signs up," said Lederle. "And we took responsibility for the actions, removed the signs and apologized to Mr. Boucher, but in his mind, that was not enough. He wanted some sort of remuneration for damages done, which he's not specified what those damages were."

When this matter was brought to Allor, it also brought to light that there was a problem and was if a fluke, or is there something that can be done to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"I'm hoping that changes can be made," said Allor.

The DNR generally does not operate by immediately fining someone for something done accidentally on state land. The department tries to work with the person to rectify the situation beforehand.

"He's just not satisfied with the outcome," said Lederle.

Allor said her meeting with Boucher was very productive in that he shared his recent experiences with the HAP, as well as providing thoughts and ideas as to how management and protocols related to the program could be improved.

"I appreciate the time he took to meet with me and have directed my staff to schedule a meeting with the HAP coordinator, so that I may share his recommendations, which I believe could result in guidelines and protocol that will be beneficial to property owners participating in HAP," said Allor. "As well as owners of adjacent parcels."

This whole matter took place last October and nothing has been done with it since the signs were removed.

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